


The Happy Ending Will Be On Tape

by CadetDru



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Backup & placeholder, Backup - Freeform, Friendship/Love, Gen, Obsession, Spoilers for The Magnus Archives Season 5, Tape recorders have feelings too!, placeholder, series recap
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-23
Updated: 2021-02-23
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:22:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,069
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27821452
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CadetDru/pseuds/CadetDru
Summary: This sweet, soft Lonely thing came to the Magnus Institute with a CV woven from half-truths and outright lies. The Web followed him since he first set foot in Jonah’s office.  Later, an escapee from Mr. Spider came that Jonah thought the Web had gift-wrapped for him.  There were so many marked by the Web, this one was nothing but a Placeholder, but it didn’t seem to matter. One archivist was just as good as another and the Lonely thing was sufficient Backup for the Placeholder Archivist.(Spoilers for the entire series, all of it, the whole thing)
Relationships: Martin Blackwood & The Web, Martin Blackwood/Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist, The Beholding & The Web (The Magnus Archives), The Lonely & The Web (The Magnus Archives)
Kudos: 28





	The Happy Ending Will Be On Tape

**Author's Note:**

> Here's how web!martin can still win!

Jonah had his plans, but he knew his place. He looked for the approval of the Web. He hired his employees with an eye for pleasing the Web. All the fears of the Beholding could be tied up and brought to the Web. Real fear masked as paranoia quickly gave way to being open for manipulation.

This sweet, soft Lonely thing came to the Magnus Institute with a CV woven from half-truths and outright lies. The Web followed him since he first set foot in Jonah’s office. Later, an escapee from Mr. Spider came that Jonah thought the Web had gift-wrapped for him. There were so many marked by the Web, this one was nothing but a Placeholder, but it didn’t seem to matter. One Archivist was just as good as another and the Lonely thing was sufficient Backup for the Placeholder Archivist. 

The tape recorders were the spiders hidden in corners, scurrying around him. Jonah didn’t see them, didn’t look at them. They needed the effects of the statements, the nightmares and the compounded fear. Just one at first, helping to sift out the real from the fake. To advance Jonah’s plan, the Backup was led to the Corruption. And he fought back. And he escaped. 

A second recorder came out to keep the Backup Archivist company as he hid in his own home, barricaded against the Corruption. He needed to stay out of the Lonely. The Backup Archivist gave the new recorder his poetry. He liked their retro, low fidelity charm. His lies and his truths were woven together to make a kind of art. His emotions for the Placeholder Archivist were his own, not needing any (real) manipulation. He took care of that himself, he was such a good friend.

He was always so kind to the regular spiders and to the tape recorders. He highlighted the Web's good work to the Placeholder who was trying too hard to forget Mr. Spider, to escape all of Jonah’s plans. The Placeholder was not a good sport at all. He took to the recorder if not the spiders. It was all the same to the Web.

Both of them needed to be marked; the Backup not as much but he needed to be ready in case the Placeholder Archivist was irrevocably broken. The tape recorders documented their pain, which would absolutely be useful. The recorders documented their growing feelings for one another, which could be potentially useful. The recorders kept track of the Placeholder’s growing powers to extract the truth. 

The recorders grew bolder, turned on when they felt it would be best for their plans, for Jonah’s plans. They understood how to lead by serving. They helped Jonah by helping the Backup Archivist rescue the Placeholder Archivist from his fate in the Buried. All the recorders had to do was play back some tapes. They’d done that before and did it again. They liked being in control.

The Backup had rejected taking Jonah’s place, and he’d planned and hoped for. They were all very smug with themselves, even the Backup. Everyone thought that they knew what they were doing. 

Jonah’s plan came to fruition (with the help of the recorders, as had always been intended) and there was a whole terrible new world to record. The Placeholder used the recorder to take and make statements still. When the Placeholder needed help digging his way back out, they would signal the Backup to come and get him. He didn’t know that it was consciously communicating, he just knew the significance of certain hisses and clicks. 

The Placeholder called upon the Ceaseless Watcher to destroy those that had offended him in some way. The Backup, their dearest friend, encouraged him at first. It was an awesome sight to Behold.

The Placeholder Archivist still didn’t understand them. He didn’t follow the tangled threads to see how they’d tied themselves around the two of them. He didn’t follow lots of threads. They didn’t want him to know too much, for all that he said that he was able to know everything. The pair ignored Annabelle’s attempts to help along the way, talking to the Distortion instead. 

They pulled the Backup out of a trap that the Lonely had set. They didn’t want to lose him. They let him use them to remind himself of the Placeholder. If they had a heart or hearts, they would have broken then. Heartbreak was something that happened to people. 

The Placeholder and Backup made it to the house where Annabelle was making her web. The Beholding couldn’t see in. The recorders could. The man who thought it was his house was disturbed and surprised. He had never been a close friend of the Web. The Archivist duo, Backup and Placeholder, didn’t stay nearly long enough. The Eye had abandoned the Placeholder and he couldn’t rely on the 

The Eye loved the Backup and teamed up with the Lonely to give him a domain of his own, some fear to feed upon. The recorders helped lead him there. The Backup went into his domain and the Placeholder addressed the Distortion. 

In his domain, the Backup got peace and quiet. He was along with himself and his best friend, the tape recorder. He confessed his dreams: killing Jonah and kissing the Placeholder. It could all be arranged.

The recorder got to be awake and active in the Distortion this time. Not like when they’d been with the Backup, scared and seemingly helpless. They suffered so, the recorders and the Backup, within the Distortion when it was Michael. Now it was Helen. Now the Distortion could submit to the Ceaseless Watcher. 

The Backup deserved this new world more than Jonah did. And so, he would have it. He wanted the Placeholder, so he would have him too. The Placeholder wanted it, too; no hints or nudges would be required. The Eye would understand; the Backup was a friend to the Eye too. Jonah had been friendly with them both, but he’d not given so much of himself to either. 

Jonah would die at the hands of the Backup, after much consideration of all options. The Placeholder would (helplessly) document it as the Backup ascended and took Jonah's place. Backup no longer, he was the ruler of the ruined world and the Placeholder nothing but his consort. The tape recorders would cheer. Everyone would get their well-deserved happy ending. 

**Author's Note:**

> This qualifies as a happy ending. Praise me in the comments.


End file.
